Effect of Microalgae/Activated Sludge Ratio on Cooperative Treatment of Anaerobic Effluent of Municipal Wastewater

In this work, capability of the green microalga (MA), Chlorella vulgaris, in treating synthetic anaerobic effluent of municipal wastewater was investigated. While pure C. vulgaris (100 % MA) provided maximum soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) and N???NH ₄ ⁺ removal efficiencies of 27 and 72 % respectively, addition of activated sludge (AS) to MA in different mass ratios (91, 80, 66.7, 9 % MA) improved wastewater treatment efficiency. Thus giving maximum sCOD and N???NH ₄ ⁺ removal efficiencies 85 and 86.3 % (for MA/AS?=?10/1), respectively. Utilizing AS without C. vulgaris, for treating the synthetic wastewater resulted in 87 % maximum sCOD and 42 % maximum N???NH ₄ ⁺ removal efficiencies. Furthermore, algal growth and specific growth rates were measured in the systems with microalga as the dominant cellular population. As a result, faster algal growth was observed in mixed systems. Specific growth rate of C. vulgaris was 0.14 (day^?1) in 100 % MA and 0.39 (day^?1) in 80 % MA. Finally, data gathered by online measurement of dissolved oxygen indicate that algae-activated sludge mixture improves photosynthetic activity of examined microalga strain during anaerobic effluent treatment.     

Characterizing colloidal behavior of non-ionic emulsifiers in non-polar solvents using electrical impedance spectroscopy

Colloidal behavior of a widely used non-ionic emulsifier, sorbitan monooleate (Span80), was investigated in non-polar solvents (cyclohexane and xylene) using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The electrical characteristics of the colloidal mixtures were measured with frequency scans ranging from 1 Hz to 200 kHz. The conductances at low frequencies were found to increase with an increase in Span80 concentration. The source of conductivity for non-polar solvents using non-ionic emulsifiers is usually attributed to ionic impurities either in the Span80 or in the non-polar solvents. The measured electrical characteristics for pure Span80 and pure non-polar solvents revealed that the source of ionic conduction is impurities in Span80. It was confirmed that the ionic impurities in the non-polar solvents are in form of aggregate of ions, ion-pairs, and triple ions which is unaffected with the emulsifier concentration. Analyses using equivalent electrical circuits confirmed that the critical Maxwell-Wagner frequency is 0.6–1.8 Hz for the mixtures. The conductance-concentration profiles for the mixtures at 1 Hz showed transitions from a square root to a linear concentration dependence at the CMC. This indicated that the dissociation model holds below the CMC, while the fluctuation model applies above the CMC. The conductance profiles enabled estimates of the relative hydrophilic core radius and the fraction of charged micelles in both non-polar solvents. Figure

CMC determination of non-ionic emulsifier in non-polar solvents     

Fiber-Optical Parametric Amplification of Sub-Picosecond Pulses for High-Speed Optical Communications

Abstract

This article reviews recent results of amplification of short optical pulses using fiber-optical parametric amplifiers. This includes chirped-pulse amplification of 400 fs pulses, error-free amplification of a 640-Gbit/s optical time-division multiplexed signal with less than a 1-dB power penalty, and all-optical phase-preserving amplitude regeneration of a 640-Gbit/s return-to-zero differential phase-shift keying optical time-division multiplexed signal.     

Synthesis of Functionalized N-Sulfonylamidines from N-Sulfonylketenimines and 2-Aminobenzimidazole

The synthesis of a novel class of N-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-2-alkyl-N′-sulfonylacetamidines via a copper-catalyzed, three-component coupling reaction of 1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-amine, sulfonyl azides, and terminal alkynes is described.     

Surveying FDA-approved drugs as new potential inhibitors of N-cadherin protein: a virtual screening approach

Since N-cadherin protein plays a remarkable role in cancer metastasis and tumor growth and progression, finding new effective inhibitors of this protein can be of high importance in cancer treatment. Nevertheless, few molecules have been introduced to inhibit N-cadherin protein to date. In this work, in order to find and present potent inhibitors, 3358 FDA-approved small molecules were docked against N-cadherin protein. All complexes with binding energy ??9 to ??8 kcal/mol were selected for protein-ligand interaction analysis. In the following, Tanimoto coefficient (T_c) was calculated for those molecules that established appropriate interactions with N-cadherin in order to compute the similarity score between them. Afterwards, molecular dynamics simulation and free energy calculations were done to estimate the stability and ability of the chosen ligands in complex with the target protein. Finally, seven small molecules among 3358 FDA-approved were suggested as potential inhibitors of N-cadherin protein.

     

Design,synthesis, characterization,and physical property determination of a new ionic liquid: the preparation of triazolo-pyrimidines at room temperature under metal-free conditions

Research on Chemical Intermediates - A new ionic liquid is synthesized, and its chemical structure is characterized by FTIR, 1D NMR and 2D NMR, and mass analyses. The thermal behavior and thermal...     

A novel multicomponent approach to the synthesis of 1,3-thiazolidine-2-thiones

An easy, efficient, and simple one-pot approach for the synthesis of 1,3-thiazolidine-2-thiones via multicomponent reaction is reported. The reaction of a primary amine with carbon disulfide in the presence of dibenzoylacetylene or bis(4-methyl-1-benzoyl)acetylene in a mixture of CH₂Cl₂ and H₂O after 5 h, afforded the title compound as alkene diastereomers.     

Anomeric-Schleyer hyperconjugative interaction as a convenient avenue for aromaticity enhancement of phospholes

Due to the insufficient interaction of the phosphorus lone pair with the butadiene moiety, the aromaticity of the phosphole ring is lower than that of its counterpart's pyrrole, furan, and thiophene. Considering the high importance of phosphole core in organic chemistry, increasing its stability through reinforcement its aromaticity can be very valuable. In the present work, the aromaticity of the phosphole on the anomeric carbon in both the axial and equatorial conformers of the unsaturated six-membered heterocycles, using structural, electronic, energetic, and magnetic indices were investigated by the DFT-B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) computational method. Electron pumping through anomeric and then Schleyer hyperconjugative interaction increase the aromaticity of the phosphole ring in axial conformer of compounds 1–11 . Based on various types of aromaticity indices, the results showed that the phosphole ring in the axial position has far higher aromaticity than the equatorial position. The phosphole ring containing cyano groups shows an efficient anomeric effect and, as a result, higher aromaticity. Excellent correlations were observed between aromaticity indices with different backgrounds.